Isaac
     n : (Old Testament) the second patriarch; son of Abraham and
         Sarah who was offered by Abraham as a sacrifice to God;
         father of Jacob and Esau

	

	Isaac
   laughter. (1) Israel, or the kingdom of the ten tribes (Amos
   7:9, 16).
   
     (2.) The only son of Abraham by Sarah. He was the longest
   lived of the three patriarchs (Gen. 21:1-3). He was circumcised
   when eight days old (4-7); and when he was probably two years
   old a great feast was held in connection with his being weaned.
   
     The next memorable event in his life is that connected with
   the command of God given to Abraham to offer him up as a
   sacrifice on a mountain in the land of Moriah (Gen. 22). (See ABRAHAM.) When he was forty years of age Rebekah was
   chosen for his wife (Gen. 24). After the death and burial of his
   father he took up his residence at Beer-lahai-roi (25:7-11),
   where his two sons, Esau and Jacob, were born (21-26), the
   former of whom seems to have been his favourite son (27,28).
   
     In consequence of a famine (Gen. 26:1) Isaac went to Gerar,
   where he practised deception as to his relation to Rebekah,
   imitating the conduct of his father in Egypt (12:12-20) and in
   Gerar (20:2). The Philistine king rebuked him for his
   prevarication.
   
     After sojourning for some time in the land of the Philistines,
   he returned to Beersheba, where God gave him fresh assurance of
   covenant blessing, and where Abimelech entered into a covenant
   of peace with him.
   
     The next chief event in his life was the blessing of his sons
   (Gen. 27:1). He died at Mamre, "being old and full of days"
   (35:27-29), one hundred and eighty years old, and was buried in
   the cave of Machpelah.
   
     In the New Testament reference is made to his having been
   "offered up" by his father (Heb. 11:17; James 2:21), and to his
   blessing his sons (Heb. 11:20). As the child of promise, he is
   contrasted with Ishmael (Rom. 9:7, 10; Gal. 4:28; Heb. 11:18).
   
     Isaac is "at once a counterpart of his father in simple
   devoutness and purity of life, and a contrast in his passive
   weakness of character, which in part, at least, may have sprung
   from his relations to his mother and wife. After the expulsion
   of Ishmael and Hagar, Isaac had no competitor, and grew up in
   the shade of Sarah's tent, moulded into feminine softness by
   habitual submission to her strong, loving will." His life was so
   quiet and uneventful that it was spent "within the circle of a
   few miles; so guileless that he let Jacob overreach him rather
   than disbelieve his assurance; so tender that his mother's death
   was the poignant sorrow of years; so patient and gentle that
   peace with his neighbours was dearer than even such a coveted
   possession as a well of living water dug by his own men; so
   grandly obedient that he put his life at his father's disposal;
   so firm in his reliance on God that his greatest concern through
   life was to honour the divine promise given to his race.",
   Geikie's Hours, etc.

	

	Isaac, laughter